Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Last day of vegetarian month

Giving up meat for a month has been really easy. I haven't even been tempted. I did have a craving for anchovies but that was all. I accidentally broke my vegetarian diet twice. Once when I took a bread roll out of the freezer and toasted it and after I ate it I had something in my teeth which I discovered was ham and I realised it was one of those rolls with cheese and ham on the top.

I also ate some chocolate which had marshmallows in it and I realized that the marshmallows would have had gelatin in them, still I didn't stop eating it. (It was Cadbury's Rocky Road)!!

Gelatin is in a lot of stuff. Yogurt, lollies, thickened cream, sour cream, although you can buy brands which don't contain it. I'll be doing that from now on. I am also not going to eat any processed meat anymore and I am only going to buy locally farmed meat. One day I hope to be able to farm all our own meat. We currently have two years worth of organic beef in the freezer which I farmed humanely here on our farm, next year we will have lamb, chicken and pork as well.

I cant say I feel any better or worse from giving up meat. I have lost one kilo but I ate a lot of carbs and cheese, a lot more than usual. I ate a bit more junk food like fried chips than I usually would have and I skipped meals because I couldn't be bothered making something different for myself than the rest of the family. Scott would NEVER give up meat!

I am not especially looking forward to eating meat again. I am looking forward to being able to cook easy meals and not have to think of something separate for me to eat.

Next month I am giving up dairy. That is going to be a lot harder.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I'm voting for the Australian Greens on Saturday

I was most unimpressed by the attitude of Koshi on 'Sunrise' this morning with his comments about the Greens. Yes, I am voting for the Greens and I have done so for most of my adult life. YES I have read their policies even the ones where he tried to misguide people into thinking the Greens want to ban people from fishing. If you care about our country and the people in it then the Greens are a valid party to receive your vote this weekend.

Gruen Nation | Ep. 3 | The Pitch: Republic of Everyone | Wednesday @ 9pm...

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Winter is almost over

I have the pigs out in the paddock free ranging today. We currently have a visiting boar here (Romeo), to keep Juliet company. She took about a week to get used to him but now they a star crossed lovers. They are out digging up the paddock which is going to be ploughed up for potatoes soon.


Our house cow Daisy is in the backyard eating the grass which is so long now. I cant mow it because it has been too wet.






There are a few small signs of Spring emerging though. Some daffodils are popping up. There are baby lambs in paddocks, although ours will not be born for another couple of months.





Soon I need to start working on the gardens. The fruit trees all need pruning and the vegi garden needs getting read for planting. Soon I am going to be very busy.


We currently have a steer in a big freezer outside waiting for the butcher to come on Friday. That will be a years worth of organic and humanely farmed beef for us. The animal was killed last week on our farm while it was eating some hay. It died in the paddocks it was born and raised on. I am happy to have meat from an animal which I know suffered in no way.





Since I have been on a vegetarian diet I have found it a lot easier than I expected. Although I wont give up meat in the long term. There is too much great food I would hate to give up. I am going to be very fussy about what meat I eat from now on though. I am no longer going to eat any meat which hasn't been farmed locally, which means I will no longer buy any meat products from supermarkets and I will ask questions about meat in restaurants. Take away meat products and processed meat products I will no longer indulge in.

My goal is to produce all our meat products here on our farm, a goal I am not too far away from.


 I am a little more than half way through my vegetarian diet experiment. I cant say I feel any better or any worse from giving up meat. I haven't lost any weight or put on any weight. I probably have eaten more since giving up meat. I feel fine but really no different. I haven't had any cravings except for anchovies but I have been a little disappointed I have been missing out on all the fresh fish Scott and Dustin have been catching in our new boat. Really though, I cant say I miss it very much and it has been easy for me. I suppose I didn't eat that much meat anyway.

Dustin is back eating meat again. He decided when I tried to feed him tofu that being a vegetarian wasn't for him :)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Kids rooms almost done!

The builder is here putting the new door on Dustin's room. He is also going to fix Ruby's door which has grown since Scott put it on a year or two ago. I am also going to get him to put the skirting boards on Ruby's floor. He is very slow. He owes us money and is working it off as slowly as possible. The shit!


Dustin used his blackboard for the first time yesterday. He was waiting for me to finish the last coat of paint and now his blackboard is covered in his and Ruby's art.  It looks great!



Dustin's room is mostly done now. I still have half his curtain to hang now that I have enough hooks, and I'll have to paint his door but that is it. Last night they both slept in their own rooms apart for the first time. The last couple nights Dustin slept with Ruby to keep her company in her new room and prior to that she was sleeping in his room while hers was getting done.


It is going to be great to be able to send them to their rooms to have a break from each other when they start fighting, which happens way to often for my comfort.


Other than the skirting boards the painting is done in Ruby's room and she has begun to move in. She needs some new furniture though and I have only begun painting the butterflies she asked for on her walls.


Yes, it is very pink!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Saturday, August 14, 2010

A couple more houses


I embroidered a couple more houses this week. Yes, I do have big plans for them when I have them finished. Whether those big plans are a success or not is yet to be decided. I'll let you know later!


Today I have been working around the house. I painted over a few marks which I made on the freshly painted walls in Dustin's room, which I made while painting his owl. I've just painted some more pink in Ruby's room. I'm getting there. It is taking me a long time to get these kids rooms done.

Scott and the kids have gone out to do a job. It is nice to have some time at home alone. The quiet is wonderful.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Gloves, hats, mittens and scarves

Gosh, we need them all today. It is cold and windy. Icy cold winds coming up from Antarctica. All the animals are hiding away and I don't plan to leave the house for the rest of the day... at least until feeding time. I might boil some potatoes and carrots for Juliet.

Yesterday it poured rain all day. I stayed inside reading and working on some little art and craft projects. An ATC for a friend which required a lot of glue so it is taking a while to dry. Of course because it is sitting there I had to add to it with a touch of gold paint.


I also finished a little 3x3 which is being sent to the USA.



I really am enjoying small art at the moment.

I have also been working on some real estate.



I have to admit a lot of my spare time has been spent reading lately. I am really enjoying books again and seem to always have one or two close by. I don't watch TV anymore so I have more time to spend with books. Right now I am reading an old favourite trashy horror writer, Dean Koontz. I still love his books after all these years.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

You don't need expensive toys

I used to buy my kids a heap of stuff. It is so tempting to want to give them everything but now they are at an age where I want to encourage their imagination and scale down on all the usual toys. Since doing up their new bedrooms (almost done now) I took all their toys out to the container outside and now that it is time to bring some of them back I am thinking very hard about what I want to give them. Especially since I have seen the valuable use of imagination since they have not had many toys inside.

I don't regret giving them a lot of toys when they were little. I think it is important for toddlers to have toys to help their with motor skills and to help them develop their imagination and also to give me a break from constant entertaining, but now that they know how to share, they have great imaginations and they have developed their own individual likes, the toys I give the kids will be selected a lot more carefully.

We bought the trampoline before winter last year so they could get some exercise during the cold months and they spend a lot of time on it. The only mistake was buying all the netting that went around it because our place gets too windy and it kept blowing away.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Not a very cold Winter

I was disappointed when I heard on the long range weather forcast early this year that we were not going to have a very cold Winter. I love snow and ice and cold rainy windy days where you can snuggle up by the fire with a cup of tea and a good book and a kitten. Still, August is usually the coldest month here in our part of Tasmania so there is still more to come.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Rosie likes to lick

The kids are moving out into the lounge room tonight. Ruby is still sleeping on her mattress on Dustin's bedroom floor because I haven't finished her room. Today I am taking both their mattresses out and putting them on the floor in the lounge room so they can have a 'slumber party' tonight by the fire while watching DVDs.

I have to do the last coat on Dustin's floor and also spray paint his bed because the silver I painted on his bed first didn't take very well for some reason. That shouldn't be a huge job providing I can spray paint his bed without getting silver paint everywhere. We'll see! I have drop sheets. I should take the bed apart and put it outside but last time I did that I broke it.

Tonight we have friends coming around for pizza so all the kids can lay down and go to sleep on the floor while watching 'Alice in Wonderland' our new favourite movie. I have a lot to do today. I have to go and buy stuff for dinner (I am out of flour), make pizza bases, chop up stuff for pizza, tidy up the house and paint Dustin's floor and bed. I also want to try and mow the lawn later.

AND, I am reading the second book in Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series and I have to find SOME time to get a few chapters of that in!

Last night we had hot dogs and Monopoly night! I made everyone hot dogs I had the vegetarian variety and then we settled down by the fire to play Monopoly. Ruby got bored first even though she was buying all the good real estate and cleaning up on rent payments! So we packed all our money and real estate up and put it in paper bags for next time.

Friday, August 6, 2010

A peek in Dustin's bedroom

It is really hard to get good photos in Dustin's room because it is on the south side of the house and is quite a dark room. I am working on making it a cosy room rather than a bright room. I tried to take these photos yesterday while the morning sun was still shining in but they are not the best photos but you can get an idea of what I have done in there.


I really love how his blackboard turned out.


The glow in the dark stars look great at night.


I really don't know how I managed to get the owl so big! It should have been half the size but he just turned out BIG!


He loves it!